Howard Mintz, Sugar Creek director of human resources, on Friday said the retrofitting of the former Really Cool Foods plant in the Gateway Industrial Park near Cambridge City has been slowed as the project has grown.

“But we’re still moving in the right direction and we’re excited about being in Wayne County,” he said from his Cincinnati office. “We had hoped to be operational in the first quarter of 2015 but with the size of our facility and the timing of when we get (electric) power, it will now be the end of the second quarter.

“That means it will delay the timing of our hiring,” Mintz said. “It’s still somewhat of a moving target but it will begin some time after the first of the year. We will use local media and our website to post details.”

The company is based in Washington Court House, Ohio, east of Dayton, and operates five plants in Ohio and Kansas that employ more than 1,500 workers.

The company is planning a $100 million investment in the new plant, including building a 270,000-square-foot addition to the present 77,000-square-foot former Really Cool Foods plant.

Sugar Creek will buy its electric power from Hoosier Energy, a power generation and transmission cooperative owned by 17 cooperatives, including Whitewater Valley REMC. Hoosier Energy provides power for those cooperatives.

Hoosier Energy will build a new substation on the Gateway park grounds to accommodate the demand from Sugar Creek and others in the park.

The electric cooperative is planning a $1.9 million investment in the project. Construction is expected to begin this fall and take about 10 months.

“We have a good layout of what we think we want to do but we still have unknowns in terms of when we will get power and when we will get equipment,” Mintz said. “But the project is moving along well and we’re looking forward to long term commitment in Wayne County.”